ARMOR - Tamiya 1/16 Tiger 1 Group Build

WhiteWolf;
That's not a bad lookin' Jagdtiger. I agree about the barrel and muzzlebrake, but more importantly, he didn't lengthen the chassis to proper Jagtiger proportions.

If I move forward with that conversion I'll look into all those wacky 1/16 parts you're talking about.

Speaking o' which, is there an aftermarket 1/16 Sherman T-23 turret available to replace that chubby 105 business on the Tamiya EZ8? I've always wanted to turn that kit into a nice 76mm rascal.

Forgot to mention....

Okie and erush,

I sent the track links out this morning via UPS. You should have them by Monday (Tuesday the latest)

Those display stands sound interesting. If you get a pic, make sure you post it. Would like to see how they look.

Well, the tracks have been primed and painted. In the garage, drying as I post. Still waiting for the Aber set to arrive. I also placed an order for more XF-60 (Dark Yellow) & XF-64 (Red Brown) to continue painting. So, now I am just playing the waiting game.

J-Hulk :

You say conversion ? Here is a JagdTiger , ready for finishing :

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3143925401&category=2588

I think he needs a Bob Wroe barrel and brake though . And its a static , so you'll need gearboxes & DMD unit . That or play hull-swap !

Anyone :

Is anyone duplicating their 1/16 tanks in 1/35 ? I am , got one of the last I needed the other day : 1/35 M36 Jackson . Now I've just gotta build all these suckers up !

WhiteWolf "EagleEye" McBride

Yup, Erush, we're in the same boat! I'm cruising along with my Bovington King Tiger, after which I'll dive into the black duffel bag.
You know, all of this postpones one of my most ambitious projects to date: converting Tamiya's 1/16 Tiger II into a Jagdtiger. [:0]

But, one thing at a time!

Hulk LIke yourself, I've not gotten started yet but with Erocks generous offer of spare track links I think I have everything for when I can start. I've had a bad week and gotten no real progress on the Marder done but once I finish it I'm clearing off the whole desk to make room for the beast!!

Eric

Okieboy,
And I got your package today, too! Thanks a lot! Cool pin!
The hangers make it over there OK? No bent bits? Ironically, that plastic case I sent 'em in was a for a Hasegawa pin badge set.

How's everybody else doing?

T1 Display stands ?

Yea , someone is selling 'em on eBay . Cobblestone street with Tiger 1 in cracked stone wall backdrop .

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3144541194&category=1200

Contact himn here : tiger1displaystand@yahoo.co.uk

I've already asked for pics .

Erock :

You want to do it right , get the the blacking stuff called 'Blacken-It' , and dunk the tracks . That gives them a nice dark finish . Then you can paint a dark gunmetal over top , and perhaps a wash of rust . Then , run the sucker on asphalt or concrete , and watch the ****** wear off and it looks f'in ~perfect~ . I've seen ones dont this way , and in the right shot , you almost can't tell they aint REAL 1:1 tracks !

see this article : http://home.att.net/~ShipModelFAQ/smf-q033.html

Okie-boy :

At this point , there are various ways to 'upgrade' that gearbox .

One : you find an HPC gearset (about $60 plus a set now), swap the final plastic/brass out , then buy Bob Wroe's reduction kit ($65 shipped), and use the gear you swapped out in the back end . That lowers it to almost perfect scale , and your weak point is gone .

Two : buy one of Willy Loewer's reductions (about $80 + shipping) to take it to scale (still have the weak point)

Three : Buy Type 4's . Speed is closer (but not dead on) to scale , but still vulnerable (they left that one gear as plastic)

The best solution (so RCACN claims) is a set of 4's ~and~ Willy's reduction , but you still have a weak point . If you drive respectably , you don't need to worry . And after-run maintenance is a MUST .

You wanna ditch the Type 1's , let me know . I can use a set .

About Dirk , better e-mail him for that data . I'm not 100% sure my data is up to date .

WhiteWolf ( who aint started his Aber ... ~yet~ .

Hiya gents!

I'm curious as to what you all think on the gear issue... Would it be a wise move to switch out those gears now, or wait to break the Tiger in and see how the original ones work?

J-Hulk, I got your package today and the hangers look awesome! I've already taped the template to the side of the turret. Thank you again!

Erock, yeah bro, I'd love to have say, 8 individual extra track links from the Tamiya stock. If you don't want them that is. That way I can be assured of having enough of them for hanging. Still slow and steady on my Tiger. I'm still working on scratch building the necessary modifications to convert this bad boy. I'm done with the armored engine cover, and today I finished the hanging bracket for the single headlight in the front. Now I'm working on those hangers! Yesterday I ordered a Badger 150 and a Cyclone compressor, so it won't be long now til I'm shooting some paint!

White Wolf, I e-mailed Dirk and I got back an e-mail, but he didn't give me his address to send payments to or the cost for shipping. Do you possibly have this info?

Man, this is some serious fun!

Roy

NP, Erock!
I'm all set, link-wise! Thanks, though.

Yep, metal is cool!

I reckon if the detail is sharper, then sure, it may be worth it.

I just can't understand why they didn't put the holes in??? I wouldn't hesitate to buy a set if this very important (and highly visable!) detail was included. It's tantamount to making a PE grill set, but with no holes in the grills! Just raised detail!

Well, maybe not quite THAT bad, but you know...

Jeez, I forgot ya' Hulk. If you needed any replacements too

The metals are the same width and length as the Tam's. It's a bit hard to tell in the picture, because of the shine, but the metal ones have a bit more depth in detail.

Also, to be honest, they seem more flexible at the pin joints (if that's possible)

I liked the fact that, this beast would have actual metal tracks

Hmmmm...Sorry guys, but looking at that pic (geez Erock, that's a clear pic, by the way!) I just don't see the merit of the metal trax. The detail appears to be identical. That is, I don't see any improvement over the Tamiya trax.

They seem a bit smaller than the Tamiya trax...are the Tamiya trax overscale?

I can see that the all-important holes are missing in the horns, which to me, negates the whole point of someone making after-market trax.
WAIT A MINUTE...did the early Tiger trax NOT have these holes, perhaps? I think they all did, though...

So, other than the previously mentioned natural weathering techinique these trax provide, what is the point of exchanging the fine Tamiya trax for these?

Erock you are the man! I'll take you up on the offer for the links, e-mail's there!! I'll get back to you on details.

Eric

Here's a pic of the metal tracks next to the stock Tamiya ones:



They definately have some weight to them. I may go with the better gearing but, not right away. I will be breaking in the motors and gearing slowly to avoid any trouble As for the upgraded gears, Is there a website that has these for sale?

The best thing is, a coat of gunmetal and black, a few runs outside and these puppies will weather themselves. No need to make the tracks "look" like they're metal

erush, Okie, WhiteWolf,

You guys are more than welcome to have some of the original kit track sections, if you need them. Send me an email and I will get them out to you.

Okie :

It was an option ... and I think the set I'm getting is used . As for the gearboxes , if you are gonna do battle , the Type 4 boxes are closer , but still not perfect , but someone is working on a gear-swap to fix 'em . Dave4What has the Type 4's for 109 & shipping .

Erock :

Interested in letting your stock tracks go ? You get 96 links per side of stock track ( I counted mine ) Thats 192 links total .
You only need 20 links for the T1 (8 for the turret , 12 for the bow - I counted there too)

You probably wanna keep some ... . If you divided 'em up into packets of 32 (6 packs) & sold 'em at $15 + shipping , or packets of 24 (8 packs) at $10 + shipping , you could make most of your $ back .

Okie wants some , and so do I . You game ?

And who saw those taps where ? If they are cheaper , mind sending 'em out ?

By the way,

I got them from seller holiday123 at eBay. He always has these and the King Tiger tracks available. Do a search on Tamiya 1/16....the barrels and tracks will show.

*EDIT* here is the link:

http://cgi.msn.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=2588&item=3144173734

Once again, as I was headed out the door for work, a package comes. I quickly opened it up and Ta-Da, the metal replacement tracks have arrived

I didn't have a chance to drool all over them take a good look at them but, I will post pictures of them by tomorrow morning.

Hello gents,

Geez Erock, you're going to be finished soon! I finished up sanding the parts of the hull to be zimmed today. I'll let you know how the "Zimm-it-rite" works out. Once that's applied, I'll use spray cans to apply the primer coat. Model Masters LLC finally got back to me last night about the tow cables. It's $8 per cable. Plus they will take a few days to make, since they apparently make them from scratch. Not a bad deal from what I've seen so far.

White Wolf, about those gear boxes... So what I wish to know is if I should consider changing the original gear boxes out for an updated versions? I don't plan on horsing my Tiger around like a Ferrari, but I do plan on taking it eventually to some tank battles. As for the metal tracks, I think I'll see how the plastic ones work out before considering the metal ones.

Whitewolf I guess I missunderstood your earlier post. I thought you were getting a full set of left over OOB tracks for a T1 from someone who had bought the metal tracks. I was wanting to buy some links of the stock kit tracks for my spares from you. I don't think it's worth trying to split up a set of metal tracks amongst a big group. That would get complicated I think.

Hulk, you know how Lawernce is...

Eric

QUOTE: Whitewolf I am interested in getting a 1mm tap if they're not too expensive. I did see a website that advertised 3 for $12 but everywhere else they were $40+ each so I don't know if the one's for 4$ are worth it even. Let me know what you found please.

If the taps are made of high speed steel (HSS) you should have no trouble. I have sucessfully cut stainless with HSS taps (it was tough though) Be very careful as they will break easily and remember for every 180 deg. rotation in the cut direction back it off 90 deg. to break the chips free.

I think I've asked this before, so I may already know the answer, but do these metal Tiger I tracks have the hole in each track horn? As I've said before, to me, that's the only detracting point on the Tamiya tracks.
If the metal tracks do not have the holes, I see no point in getting them.

About tracks ...

If that guy on eBay has any Tiger 1 tracks left , or even for the KT ones ...

At 10 links a set for the T1, $130 shipped comes to $8.15 plus shipping , if 16 sets , $7.64 for 17 sets . That not bad ! At about 160 shipped , Kenny Kong's are only marginally more expensive ( and he had one or two sets left ... )

Now the KT needs 16 links a set ( 8 of each ) so it would come to $13 each ( with a short set left over )

Even Dirk can't meet that ( his set of 10 T1 links is $18 )

How many are game for a split for T1's or KT's ?

Rules? We got rules here? :)

Whitewolf I am interested in getting a 1mm tap if they're not too expensive. I did see a website that advertised 3 for $12 but everywhere else they were $40+ each so I don't know if the one's for 4$ are worth it even. Let me know what you found please.

Also if you got the complete track runs from that guy would you be interested in selling me enough links for spares to hang on the turret?? Please let me know on that also. You can e-mail me if you want so we don't use the forum for it. That's kind of close to bending the rules and I don't want to do that.

Thanks,

Eric

Yes, Robert! Paint! Who'd a thought!

Whitewolf, the Tamiya spray cans are the 100 ml. variety. Krylon is one thing I can't find here in Japan! And even if I could, do they have a nice German Gray like Tamiya's, that matches their bottle paints exactly? That's why I'm going can / airbrush. I don't think with this big Tiger there's much of a crevice issue to contend with, so cans it is for me.
Anybody brush painting the whole thing??

Eric you're really moving and I'm with Hulk, I bet you're going to be done before either of us get started!!

I've been wondering...just how many bottles of Tamiya paint do y'all think it's going to take us to paint those beasts??? I think when i get ready to do the body I'm going to get about 4 jars and mix it all together in a big jar to have one color shade

Eric

Eric

Theres no holding you back is there!!!

Im still buying tools!!

I thought the same thing too, lots of airbrushing going to happen on this project. I feel that, I have better control and am able to get the paint in the crevices better, using an AB.

I think either way, we will all be doing a lot of spraying

$4 US ? That the 23 ml can , or the 10 ml ? Our 10's run about 3 Cdn , and they discontinued the 23's .

For $6 Cdn , I can buy the Krylon , spray-can ready , and it can go straight on bare metal too ! And one can can do two tanks ( these are standard spray-can size )

AS for the solvent , I stuck some parts on my Sherman post-paint , and all it did was leave what looked like a stain ! No slagging . But then again , this is the Krylon paint ... I'd suggest shooting a bit inside the hull , and then testing there .

As for the Aber set , I'm gonna try to keep un-used frets ( thats what the call the PE sheets ) in their designated packs , and if I don't use a packet , list it at under Aber's list for it . Odds are I wont use the cupola detail set , and none of the hatch detailing ... but all the outer hull stuff .

Someone is sending me a set of T1 tracks ( he bought the metal set ) so I can put them into the track holders , and I'm gonna bore the fittings out if the KT ones to put them on proper hangers . I think the hardest part is gonna be where you have to shave parts off , like the turret bin , front fenders , and the tool kit on the stern-plate .

I've not tried folding anything yet ... but the unit looks great . I'll probably start with the easier parts , like the side fenders , and them move from there .

HEY , I found a supplier of 1mm taps and dies . How many would be interested in buying 'em to tap their holes properly and use the die to properly thread their wingnuts ? I'll post the prices and quantity-discounts soon as they tell me .

Let me know .